Tag Archives: Kerala

Debates, Ecology/Environment, Genders, Identities, Language, Left watch

Jazeera in Delhi: Who Can Speak Against the Sand Mafia? : Bindu Menon M

5 Comments

This is a guest post by BINDU MENON M

Jazeera V, who began her fight against sand mining mafia in Kerala one and a half years ago in the North Kerala coastal hamlet Neerozhukkumchal, is now on a sit-in, in front of the Kerala House near Jantar Mantar New Delhi.  She had first approached the village office, the local panchayat, police station, the district authorities and Kerala State government with the appeal to stop sand mining in the beach which grossly violated the Coastal Zone regulations. Ridiculed by the local media and intimidated and physically assaulted by the supporters of the sand mining mafia, she sat in front of Kerala State Secretariat for several weeks before moving to Delhi.  She demands that the central government should immediately take action against the gross violation of laws for protecting the coastal zones. Her struggle in front of the Kerala secretariat at Thiruvananthapuram for 68 days against the inaction of Kerala Government forced Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to invite her to his chamber for discussion. Although he assured her that he would take necessary actions against sand mining on the coast, he was reluctant to give her any written reply. She finally decided to shift her sit in from Kerala to Delhi in protest of Chief Minister’s callous attitude.

Continue reading Jazeera in Delhi: Who Can Speak Against the Sand Mafia? : Bindu Menon M →

Bad ideas, Government, Images, Law, Media politics

Thejas Daily: A Newspaper’s Encounters with the Ruling Powers : N P Chekkutty

3 Comments

This is a guest post by N P CHEKKUTTY

In normal circumstances, journalists are not people in the limelight– they are supposed to be the first witnesses to history in the making. Their role is as observers of incidents and purveyors of what goes on in the public sphere. And they discharge their duties as representatives of the citizens, generally enjoying the public confidence. That explains the key role of media in a democratic polity, as representatives of the various segments of people and as a forum where a dispassionate debate of public issues can take place. Like the Red Cross personnel on a war front, media-persons are expected to do their job without hindrance of harassment, keeping away from the sound and fury of public life.  Continue reading Thejas Daily: A Newspaper’s Encounters with the Ruling Powers : N P Chekkutty →

Culture, Debates, Identities, Politics

Onathallu Redux? Some thoughts on Onam

1 Comment

I remember, as a young child, going with my father one Onam in our ancestral home to watch the local Onam sports-and-games.My admittedly-fuzzy memory is of a large crowd of men gathered in an open paddy field or ground (I remember a lovely cloud of dragon-flies hovering above doing some sort of crazy-excited dance), getting ready for Onathallu — physical combat between
two men. Continue reading Onathallu Redux? Some thoughts on Onam →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

आतंकवादी कविता के विरुद्ध युद्ध: अपूर्वानंद

Leave a comment

‘शिक्षा बचाओ आन्दोलन’ ने आतंकवाद के खिलाफ अंतर्राष्ट्रीय युद्ध में नई जीत हासिल की है. वह कालीकट विश्वविद्यालय के स्नातक स्तर की  अंग्रेज़ी की पाठ्यपुस्तक –‘लिटरेचर एंड कंटेम्पररी इश्यूज’ से ‘अल कायदा से जुड़े एक आतंकवादी’ इब्राहिम अल रुबाईश की कविता ‘ओड टू द सी’ को निकलवा देने में सफल रहा है.  आन्दोलन की केरल इकाई के सचिव ने इस कविता को पाठ्यपुस्तक में शामिल करने को ‘गंभीर मामला’ बताते हुए कहा था कि किताब को वापस लेने और विश्वविद्यालय द्वारा माफी माँगने के बाद इसकी जांच होनी चाहिए कि ‘बोर्ड ऑव स्ट्डीज़’ और अकेडमिक काउन्सिल’ में आतंकवादियों के समर्थक कौन हैं जिससे इस तरह की सामग्री के चुनाव के पीछे की साजिश का पर्दाफ़ाश हो सके.

कुलपति ने फौरन अपने डीन प्रोफ़ेसर एम.एम. बशीर को मामले की जांच करने को कहा. उन्होंने कहा कि ऊपर से निर्दोष लगने वाली इस  कविता में रुबाइश ने अत्यंत अर्थगर्भी प्रतीकों का इस्तेमाल किया है जो खतरनाक भी हो सकते हैं.मसलन, उसने ‘फेथलेस’ शब्द का प्रयोग किया है जो अरबी शब्द ‘काफिर’ का अंग्रेज़ी अनुवाद है. फिर जैसा आज का अकादमिक रिवाज है, वे इंटरनेट पर गए और पता किया कि इस कवि  ने अमरीका के खिलाफ जंग का आह्वान भी किया था. भला इसके बाद और सोचने की ज़रूरत ही क्या रह जाती है?पाठ्यपुस्तक के संपादकद्वय में से एक ने लगभग माफी माँगते हुए कहा कि डेढ़ साल पहले इसे संपादित करते वक्त रुबाइश के बारे में ज़्यादा सामग्री ‘ऑनलाइन’ मौजूद न थी. अगर उन्हें कवि के  राजनीतिक रुझान  का जरा भी अंदाज होता तो वे इसे कतई न चुनते. Continue reading आतंकवादी कविता के विरुद्ध युद्ध: अपूर्वानंद →

Bad ideas, Countryside, Ecology/Environment

We do not want to see a repeat-performance of Muthanga: Appeal against Police Violence at Kathikudam

2 Comments

[When he finished recounting a glorious story of struggle by fisher folk against an obnoxious, oppressive feudal lord in a coastal village in Kerala, a senior activist told me: “But we can’t rest … the places where the poor live in Kerala are being taken over again … this time to be waste-dumps of the rich. This village can’t be an exception.” He was referring to the heavy pollution caused by the high-end pleasure resorts mushrooming around the village. Indeed, in all districts of Kerala, local struggles are becoming all the more frequent against the pillage of the earth to satisfy consumerist greed of the predatory rich and the shameless dumping of waste in areas where the poor live. The people of Kathikudam have been fighting a long battle — not just against the Nitta Gelatine factory’s heavily polluting practices which have nearly destroyed the Chalakudi river, wetlands in the area, extracting a huge toll on animal, and plant life in the region  and causing immense difficulties to local people there.  They are also condemning the company’s stealthy attempts to dump waste in distant border adivasi areas. Yesterday the police unleashed bestial violence against protestors, which has been widely condemned in the state.

Below is an appeal in protest signed by concerned intellectuals and activists. If the present UDF government considers itself to be above being a bunch of wheeler-dealers whose sole interest is grabbing the crumbs that fall from the table of predatory capital, they must act decisively and justly against this wanton disrespect to democracy on the part of the police they control. Those who wish to endorse the appeal may please indicate so in the comments]

We, the undersigned, are shocked to hear and read about the unfortunate and avoidable response of the police in the handling of the peaceful protest against thee pollution by Nitta Gelatin Company Limited has been creating in the village of Kathikudam in Thrissur District of Kerala.
The police attack on the protest has been brutal and the violence is against the people of the village who have been denied justice in the wake of insufferable pollution, which has been causing severe damage to the air, water, soil and agriculture of this region for three decades. This is what prompted the protestors to take action in the form of removing the pipe that carries effluents to the river. Continue reading We do not want to see a repeat-performance of Muthanga: Appeal against Police Violence at Kathikudam →

Capitalism, Debates, Everyday Life, Genders, Violence/Conflict

Students vs. SEWA or Dalit Student vs. Dalit Women Workers? Student ‘Politics’ on CDS Campus: Praveena Kodoth, J Devika, Sonia George

31 Comments

There have been reports in the media of an agitation by students of the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram,  because a fellow student was asked to leave the hostel  to facilitate an investigation of a complaint against him by the Self Employed Women’s Association, which runs the cafeteria on campus.  These reports and some exchanges between faculty have been circulated on the web / social media and has led to wider discussion of this event.  We consider it imperative to put forward our shared perspective as women activists as well as bring together our views as women faculty members of CDS and co-ordinator of SEWA respectively.

The student was informed in a letter that the action against him was until such time as the investigation was completed.  Media reports have portrayed the agitation as having been motivated by the victimization of a Dalit student by the workers of the cafeteria. Also it is being propagated that the student was ‘turned out’ of the campus when the letter from the Director required the student to ‘leave’ the hostel and refrain from using the cafeteria until the investigation was over.  Deliberately enough, the action was not to prevent the student from entering the campus.  We present here the context in which the student was asked to leave the hostel, the politics of the portrayal of the incident by the students as an infringement of the rights of a Dalit student and the larger implications of their claims, that feminism has been used to victimize students on the basis of caste.

Continue reading Students vs. SEWA or Dalit Student vs. Dalit Women Workers? Student ‘Politics’ on CDS Campus: Praveena Kodoth, J Devika, Sonia George →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Genders, Government, Law, Violence/Conflict

When rape survivor becomes victim: Sherin B.S.

5 Comments

SHERIN B.S. writes from Hyderabad: There is a constant demand for a change in the terminology from ‘rape victim’ to ‘rape survivor’ in the agenda of feminist concerns in discourses related to rape. But beyond the feminist investment on surviving rape, a systematic reading of public discourses presents the traumatic sustenance of layers of violence that follows rape. The Suryanelli girl has survived rape, but the violent experience of life after rape perpetrated by systemic structures of patriarchy places her at the receiving end of a system that consciously alienates, humiliates and hunts her down.

While referring to the Suryanelli rape case there are two kinds of discourses circulated widely. One is the question of legality of the crime involved, with a heavily prejudiced and unsympathetic legal frame work attempting to frame the girl as an eternal victim subject for whom justice is almost impossible, mediated through parallel machinery of the state, including law enforcement. The impossibility of justice is not the intention of the legal machinery but it comes through the operating forces of judgments, prosecution stands, law enforcing offices like police stations and officers, and questions of evidence, alibis and so on. Continue reading When rape survivor becomes victim: Sherin B.S. →

Bad ideas, Culture, Genders, Images, Left watch

Class Feminism vs. Classy Feminism … Or, Everybody Loves the Governable Woman!

6 Comments

A few weeks ago, I mentioned on Kafila a certain gentleman who delivered a memorable address in Government Women’s College, Thiruvananthapuram, which contained sage advice on how to bring under control the unruly bodies of ungovernable women.  After that I have been receiving unsigned letters from his admirers who feel that their innocent hero has been most unfairly criticized. Like the grumpy ground-lubber types who are either incapable of ascending or simply unable to climb coconut trees and do not appreciate the free services rendered by the chivalrous heroes high above, I have erred in judgment, they claim. Continue reading Class Feminism vs. Classy Feminism … Or, Everybody Loves the Governable Woman! →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Countryside, Debates, Ecology/Environment, Identities

Imagined Immunities: The Cure of Idinthakarai

17 Comments

The power of imagined communities was never so evident to us as on the other day, when a group of us — Malayalee people of different political affiliations — made our way to Idintakarai in southern Tamil Nadu. In many ways,we were representative of contemporary Malayalee society — we were from districts spanning the length and breadth of Kerala, had very vocally-expressed mutual differences of opinions and interests, and belonged to of different socioeconomic classes, faiths, and castes, were composed of local residents, NRIs, and Malayalees settled elsewhere in the country. Of course, we were also representative of the gender imbalances that characterize even the oppositional civil society here — there were just two women in a group of nearly thirty. We went there to express solidarity with the people of Idinthakarai who have been struggling valiantly against the monstrosity that the government of India is determined to foist on them — the Koodankulam nuclear power plant — and who have been described as traitors to the Nation by the very people who have ripped apart our sense of what a nation should mean to ordinary people. Continue reading Imagined Immunities: The Cure of Idinthakarai →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Countryside, Government

The Nightmare of the Chaavunilam and the Illusions of Well-Meaning Scholars

1 Comment

 

Chaavunilam (“Dead Land”)is the title of one of Sarah Joseph’s well-known short-stories in Malayalam. In it she relates a myth of devastation and revival — it describes a scene of terrible devastation through the eyes of the last woman left there, the Mother — who witnesses the terrible violence between her children which leaves the earth shattered, verdure destroyed, and which ends in the death of all the combatants. This is the tale of her immense suffering — she is torn apart by birthing-pains, at the same time as she is devastated by the death of all her children. Continue reading The Nightmare of the Chaavunilam and the Illusions of Well-Meaning Scholars →

Culture, Law, Left watch, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

The Anti-Politics of Murder

9 Comments

No, this post is not mainly about the ghastly murder of the rebel communist leader T P Chandrasekharan at Vatakara in Kerala early this month. It appears clear now that irrespective of whether the CPM leadership was directly involved or not, local CPM cadre were involved in the conspiracy. Certainly, it is an act gruesome enough to feed nightmares through many nights. And the way the gory details of the planning and execution of the murder continue to appear in the print and visual media, the Malayalee public is almost on its knees, holding on to their stomachs, racked by seemingly never-ending bouts of nausea. But I have my reasons for not wanting to focus on this incident here, reasons more than the sheer irritation felt with sections of the media that demand shrilly that ‘cultural leaders’ have not condemned the murder sufficiently. Continue reading The Anti-Politics of Murder →

Bad ideas, Images, Language, Left watch, Media politics

“Ideal Journalists” and a Woman’s Right to Dignity: Aswathy Senan

2 Comments

Guest post by ASWATHY SENAN

[The astoundingly misogynist representation of Aswathy Senan’s appointment as the Liaison Officer in Calicut University by the Deshabhimani newspaper was discussed earlier on Kafila in a guest post by APARNA ESWARAN]

Just as issues of gender and ethical journalism have been raised with regard to the Deshabhimani report on 30.04.2012 by C. Prajosh Kumar, a legal and ethical concern bothers any interested reader, who is beginning to feel involved. The reporter while correcting himself as a response to my letter stated it thus: “For a post that was advertised on 21-12-11, a bio-data was sent more than a month back, and a recommendation by VC was made on it: it is this irregularity in the procedure that the report tried to bring forth. And thus, the reporter has done the duty of an ideal journalist.” Continue reading “Ideal Journalists” and a Woman’s Right to Dignity: Aswathy Senan →

Bad ideas, Images, Language, Left watch, Media politics

Facts and Fiction – Creative Journalism and Real Consequences: Aparna Eswaran

5 Comments

Guest post by APARNA ESWARAN

Increasingly, a section of young unmarried Malayali women are choosing to leave the comforts and shackles of their homes in Kerala, to live independently in alien cities in an unapologetic pursuit of their particular dreams. The patriarchal society of Kerala negotiates this category of women with a strange ambivalence, and the Malayalam media tackles her in two convenient ways.  Continue reading Facts and Fiction – Creative Journalism and Real Consequences: Aparna Eswaran →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Movements, Politics

Condemn the Arrest of Advocate Shanavas by “Hi-tech Cell”!

2 Comments

This statement has been released by Manisha Sethi, Adeel Mehdi, Ahmed Sohaib, Sanghamitra Misra and others for  JAMIA TEACHERS’ SOLIDARITY ASSOCIATION

Demand his immediate release!

The undersigned condemn in strongest terms the arrest of Advocate Shanavas, a leading human rights activist of Kerala. Advocate Shanavas, who lives and practices in Trivandrum, was arrested on 1st May 2012, and his office raided and his files seized by the Crime Branch of the state. Ostensibly, his arrest has been made by the “Hi-tech Cell” of the Kerala Crime Branch for conspiring to leak intelligence communication in the infamous Email surveillance scandal that rocked the state a few months ago—where a leading daily of the state has alleged that the Hi-tech Cell was snooping on the emails of nearly 250 Muslim individuals and institutions. Continue reading Condemn the Arrest of Advocate Shanavas by “Hi-tech Cell”! →

Countryside, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Government, Mirror Worlds

Oru Kili Iru Kili – A Party in Dubai: Alia Allana

4 Comments

Guest post by ALIA ALLANA

For the Pilipino there was no escaping the Indian song and dance.

A tube-light flickered as loud music blared from a room at the far end of the corridor. The flickering light and the ensuing cacophony gave the corridor in Sonapur Labour Camp a surreal discotheque feel: one that the Pilipino was no longer game to. Nearer the door, voices of men dipped low and then travelled high past the room in which the tired labourer from Cebu lived.

“Oru Kili Iru Kili,” they bellowed in Malayalam and the tune filtered through the flimsy plywood door. The tired looking Pilipino pulled a face as he described the scene he had once encountered when the door was left ajar. The “party” room was clouded over with smoke and six Indian labourers from Kerala lounged cross-legged in a circle, smoking cigarettes and drinking from steel cups, writhing their bodies and shaking their hands up in the air. A bottle with no label was passed around and the brouhaha escalated to a feverish pitch. Once again the merry men burst out, “Oru Killi Iru Killi”. Continue reading Oru Kili Iru Kili – A Party in Dubai: Alia Allana →

Bad ideas, Countryside, Debates, Law

Kerala and Kudankulam: The Media Sleeps

13 Comments

It is amazing how the very same Malayalees and their media, which made Mount Everest out of that molehill of Mullaperiyar, remain sweetly calm in comparison at the events unfolding in Kudankulam. In fact the amnesia is so complete that it is as if few remember (except the anti-nuclear activists in Kerala who have been consistently supporting the struggles of the local people) that it was common knowledge in the late 1980s that the plant would affect both Tamil Nadu and Kerala.There was far greater awareness of the special problems of locating the plant in Kudankulam for Kerala, where natural radiation levels are already very high. The violence too had an early start, with the police firing on a people’s rally against the plant in 1989, which killed one person.

Continue reading Kerala and Kudankulam: The Media Sleeps →

Bad ideas, Debates, Everyday Life, Politics

Letter from the Stinkcity of Thiruvananthapuram

11 Comments

Respected development tourists, leftists and scholars from the West who have been coming here seeking your heterotopia, welcome to the city of Thiruvananthapuram.

Yes, you are here to see that Kerala which gives you relief from the relentless decline of the left in your part of the world.You have been honouring us with such visits since the 1970s. We have been happy to oblige, cast and recast to suit your projections. When ‘social development’ was fashionable in the UN circles, Kerala was indeed the space where you found ‘social development’ thriving. But when ‘human development’, the theoretical and political provenances of which are quite different from those of ‘social development, became your preference, Kerala transmogrified itself most willingly into the paradise of ‘human development’. And then you came to be fascinated by ‘participatory development’, we diligently turned into the very fount of ‘participatory development’. Thank you very much for keeping us afloat in the imagination of Western left developmentalist intellectuals (though I do see that the oodles of ‘agency’ showered upon us by you may actually be your way of compensating for the shrinking of your own agency in the face of the triumphant march of neoliberal capitalism in your homelands) Continue reading Letter from the Stinkcity of Thiruvananthapuram →

Bad ideas, Debates, Images, Law, Media politics

Confuse and deceive – Email interception in Kerala and the formula for political survival: Yaseen Ashraf

8 Comments

Guest post by YASEEN ASHRAF, associate editor of the Malayalam weekly, Madhyamam

An article by Viju V Nair in Madhyamam Weekly (issue 727, 23 January 2011) has raised the hackles of the Kerala Government and its political allies. Strange, because the report was about the excesses of the police intelligence, something which can be – and should be – investigated and corrected. The investigative report claimed that 268 email accounts were ordered by the Kerala state intelligence to be tapped, out of which a huge majority belong to Muslims. None of these persons has any previous criminal history. So it is not clear why they are put under the cyber scanner. Continue reading Confuse and deceive – Email interception in Kerala and the formula for political survival: Yaseen Ashraf →

Bad ideas, Debates, Ecology/Environment, Government

Fear, Safety and Livelihood: The Biopolitics of Mullaperiyar: T. T. Sreekumar

11 Comments

Guest post by T. T. SREEKUMAR

The Mullaperiyar Dam controversy  embodies a concrete and complex example of the imperial matrix of biopolitical legacy that post-colonial societies continually encounter even after decades of political independence.  More than a century ago, the British colonial Government administering Madras Presidency, which included parts of Tamil Nadu State, directed the erstwhile princely state of Travancore (which forms the southern districts of Kerala) to sign an agreement to divert water from the Periyar river in Travancore to the relatively arid zones adjoining the Western Ghats within the presidency, and to lease out a large tract of its territory for the construction of a Dam for a time span of 999 years.  In the post-independence period, two supplemental agreements to the original Lease Deed of 1886 have been signed between the Madras government and the Government of Kerala regarding fishing rights and generation of hydroelectric power, the former in favour of Kerala and latter favouring Tamil Nadu. The supplementary agreements negotiated and enhanced the annual lease rent and the rate of pay for the electrical energy generated.

Continue reading Fear, Safety and Livelihood: The Biopolitics of Mullaperiyar: T. T. Sreekumar →

Bad ideas, Identities, Law, Right watch

Human Development and other Holy Cows: Sajan Venniyoor

39 Comments

Guest post by SAJAN VENNIYOOR

The press is full of the India Human Development Report 2011 released by the Centre recently, and Gujarat figures prominently in newspaper headlines for reasons Mr. Modi is unlikely to quote in self-congratulatory ads. As The Telegraph put in tortured prose, Gujarat has a ‘Gnawing record fasting Modi won’t flaunt‘.

Kerala once again topped the Human Development Index. One of the more charming images that accompanied the story is from Rediff, which showed a fairly archetypal Kerala landscape with paddy fields, coconut trees and a cow. No humans, though, developed or otherwise. It struck me, then, that part of Kerala’s high ranking in the health and nutrition stakes may come from its willingness to consume all three: rice, coconuts and the cow. And thereby hangs a tale. Continue reading Human Development and other Holy Cows: Sajan Venniyoor →

Bad ideas, Countryside, Culture, Government, Identities, Images, Left watch, Media politics, Movements, Politics, Right watch

Out of Development’s Waiting Room, Out of Democracy: The Continuing Agony of the DHRM

12 Comments

[with inputs from Baiju John]

Faced with the never-ending agony to which the members of the Dalit Human Rights Movement (DHRM) in Kerala seem to be subject to, it appears that that the more familiar ways of marginalizing of dalit people in Malayalee people do not work anymore. The past few days have seen horrendous attacks on these people near the town of Varkala in Thiruvanathapuram district. The DHRM has accused the Siva Sena and the BJP of violence, but it appears that both the authorities and the press are equally and irremediably deaf. Continue reading Out of Development’s Waiting Room, Out of Democracy: The Continuing Agony of the DHRM →